As a new COVID-19 variant seems to pop up every few weeks, 2022 is starting to look like 2020, too. BUT, every cloud has a silver lining! More time inside means more time to enjoy our favorite games with our favorite people.
Here are a few of Nutmeg Games’ most anticipated titles for 2022:
The Spill
Curt Covert and his team at Smirk & Dagger have been consistently producing some of the best modern board games. Based in Newtown, CT, we are proud to call them neighbors and support a local game developer as they roll out one of the most highly anticipated titles of the new year.
The Spill is a fully cooperative game where players work together by sailing around the board and pushing the spilling oil back (almost like a reverse tower defense game). This unique and engaging co-op experience centers around an oil platform that releases die onto the board, which players must use quick thinking and teamwork in order to fix, saving oceanic wildlife along the way.
Although the game’s setting, an offshore oil platform by the name of ‘DeepWell 4’ is fictitious, its subject matter is all too real. Approximately 1.3 million gallons of oil are spilled into the world's oceans annually, in addition to major spills that seem commonplace in today’s world. Smirk and Dagger has donated over $1000 to Oceana, a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the world’s oceans, as well as pledging a portion of proceeds from game sales.
Frosthaven
The standalone sequel to the fan favorite Gloomhaven, Frosthaven comes equipped with sixteen new characters, three new races, over twenty new enemies and 100 new items, and a new 100-scenario campaign.
Set in a small outpost in the far north of the capital city of White Oak, a group of mercenaries must fight off both the elements and enemy invasions to help defend their settlement.
With such a remote setting, resources are particularly scarce and especially valuable in the new game, meaning that a crafting mechanic is essential to progress instead of simply buying the essential items. MacGyver would be proud!
Frosthaven’s characters will be interchangeable with those in Gloomhaven. Likewise, many of the items available from Frosthaven are able to be used in the original Gloomhaven game through a unique importing mechanic.
Nemesis: Lockdown
The first standalone sequel to Nemesis, Nemesis: Lockdown brings the players to a completely fresh location; a secret base on Mars.
Nemesis: Lockdown utilizes a new multi level board to represent this new location and maintain the cinematic, semi co-op gameplay of the original game while still presenting a wealth of updated mechanics.
Some of these mechanics include the aforementioned multi level base with attached stairs and elevators, advanced computer actions, a ccs hatch system, lighting and power on multiple levels, a contingency plan, and even a brand new alien race and characters.
In addition to new features, this new iteration of Nemesis also offers a PvP aspect, heightening the competition and complexity even more than the previous installment.
Sagrada: Legacy
A brand new legacy version of the original hit stained glass game, Sagrada Legacy has been in the works for a long time.
At the moment, not much is known about the gameplay mechanics that will make this iteration of the Great Facades expansions a legacy game, but Floodgate Games has been teasing its release since January of last year.
Given the wild success of the Sagrada series, Sagrada: Legacy is highly anticipated as it’s many loyal fans eagerly track news from Floodgate.
Bitoku
One of the only hand management and engine building games on our list, Bitoku offers a breathtaking art style and engaging storyline. The game's aesthetics make gameplay a wonderful experience for all involved.
Likewise, with its (relatively) easy to understand mechanics, Bitoku is a great gateway into heftier euro games. Although still a relatively complex game, Bitoku is a well rounded, great all around experience no matter what aspects of games you focus on.
Frostpunk
Frostpunk: The Board Game is a tabletop adaptation to the popular video game of the same namesake.
Frostpunk is a colony management game in which both standard and intangible resources, such as ‘hope’ and ‘discontent’, are crucial to save, invest, and utilize in order to lead your people… or not.
Four players take the role of leaders of a small colony of survivors in a post-apocalyptic land under an ice age. As the leaders, players are responsible not only for the colony’s resources and infrastructure, but also for its citizens. Players can choose between brutality and altruism, exploration and innovation; will you use lifeforce as a resource or choose to liberate your people from tyranny?
The brainchild of a collaboration between Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic the Gathering (that's the link to our store), and Justin Gary, creator of Ascension, SolForge Fusion is called the next evolution in trading card games.
A ‘hybrid’ card game that includes over fifteen thousand cards in just the base set, all decks used in the game are algorithmically generated such that no two decks are identical. Then, two decks are shuffled together in order to battle. Solforge Fusion looks like a mix between games like Keyforge and Smash-Up and offers a refreshing mix of mechanics in this new title.
You and your opponent compete in lane based combat where using a card increases its level, granting you new abilities and powers to damage your opponent. A player wins when their opponent's health is eliminated.
Weather Machine
Another game with just a dash of real world trauma flair, Weather Machine centers around a team of scientists working together for the great Professor Sêni Lativ, the project chief of the Meteorological Manipulation at Lightning Technologies. Scientists have been perfecting the professor's new invention, the Weather Machine, after it has shown promising results in solving the world's extreme weather and tumultuous natural disasters.
But, as the weather machine remedies problems in one place, new problems arise elsewhere in the world. Each test causes a butterfly effect of catastrophes throughout the climate.
Players must work together with their fellow scientists to place workers in an effort to make individual machines work in harmony to fix the earth’s weather conditions.
Weather Machine has received rave reviews from early testing and remains one of the most highly anticipated board games of recent years.
Founders of Teotihuacan
From the creators of Teotihuacan: City of Gods, Founders of Teotihuacan is a standalone game that shares only the setting with the aforementioned game; the great pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan in current-day Mexico.
Founders of Teotihuacan is a city planning game which feels akin to 7 Wonders. 2-4 Players take turns either taking action and placing tiles to strategically build towers, temples, and resource collecting structures; or passing.
Resource generation and management are a key mechanic of this turn based game, so players must take care in investing or saving resources and planning their moves from the start of the game.
As the game progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to find strategically advantageous locations, so players must outwit their opponents with careful planning to win!
Planet Unknown
Probably something most of us wish we could do in 2022, Planet Unknown centers around humanity leaving earth after expending our resources in favor of six newly discovered planets. 1-6 Players compete to build and develop the best planet to win.
Planet Unknown brings a unique innovation to the popular polyomino trend by introducing the Lazy S.U.S.A.N. space station at the center of the table, allowing for simultaneous yet strategic turn-based play.
This fast paced strategy game offers a mountain of content (akin to a 3 hours medium weight game!) condensed into a 70 minute time frame regardless of the player count, making it great for a quick game night.
Given many of last year’s most hyped titles were unfortunately pushed back due to COVID-19 related ailments or the fabled supply chain issues, 2022 is looking like a phenomenal year for board games.
If you would like to learn more about any of these great games or are curious about the hundreds of other titles we offer, don’t hesitate to pay us a visit at 178 Danbury Road in Milford, CT, or check out the rest of our website today!
